Is Bruno Massel’s Chevy ECOtec-powered Cobalt the future of Pro Stock drag racing? Should it be? Those are big questions, but in this writer’s opinion, yes it should be.

What if NHRA Pro Stockers were actually based on Chevy-powered Chevy brands instead of the non identifiable Pro Stocks we have now with 500-inch big blocks, carburetors and, in some cases, front-wheel drive Chevys converted to rear-wheel drive.

What if the body styles actually looked like the Chevys you see on a dealers showroom floor? Then maybe the Chevy faithful drag fans would have something they could really root for in NHRA Pro Stock.

For starters, consider that just about every automobile manufacturer has a four-cylinder power plant, and most, if not all, of them have some sort of racing support. The whole sports compact scene showed us that the manufacturers were willing to showcase their products, and gave many younger fans their first taste of NHRA-style drag racing.

I personally had the chance to watch the whole SCO experiment, both from the factory support side (Harry Turner and Fred Simmons of GM Racing) to the way tracks presented it (I was Race Director for Firebird International Raceway during the NOPI and SCO events). While short-lived, it proved that younger fans liked seeing a car you could go out and actually buy.